• by September 23, 2003

Grim Reaper? Tony Randall: dead or alive? Well, it's been a while since the Riff has played that one and to show how rusty we are, it turns out Randall is very much alive. And just to prove it, Randall, who is best known for his role as Felix Unger on the long-running ABC's sitcom "The Odd Couple," will appear in a new campaign talking about death. Well, funerals anyway. Felix, er, we mean Randall, will is slated to serve as the spokesman for the funeral industry. "I've been asked to speak at funerals and have seen first-hand how they can help the grieving," said Randall, announcing his role as spokesman for a National Funeral Directors Association "For A Life Worth Celebrating" campaign, which broke this week, just in time for Funeral Service Education Week.

The Riff thinks NBC execs would be making a big mistake by unloading Vivendi Universal's theme parks if and when their proposed merger is completed. We see countless opportunities for attractions based on the themes of popular NBC series. There's the "Just Shoot Me" arcade attraction and we can think of all sorts of stomach-churning - or is it heaving - rides emanating from "Fear Factor." But the one that just gives us the willies to think about it, is the CNBC stock ticker roller coaster, the one with the steepest peaks and valleys of any known to man. But perhaps it was the recent negligence related liabilities associated with media conglom rival Walt Disney Co.'s Big Thunder Mountain ride that has gotten the NBC brass rethinking the amusements business. Then again, we can think of another NBC show themed solution for that: "ER."

As the search goes on for a new CEO to run - or is it ruin - the rapidly divesting media empire known as Primedia, the Riff wonders what's become of its last one. But we here the former NBC Cable honcho turned integrated magazine and Internet maven Tom Rogers has been casting about some interesting opportunities. While it seemed he was sent packing in a manner that would suggest we wouldn't have him to kick around any longer, the Riff hears that Mr. Rogers has been seen poking around his old neighborhood, television. Well sure, it's well known that Rogers the mastermind behind NBC's successful cable and new media diversification strategies, has been advising the Dolans at Cablevision Systems - former allies and partners of Rogers' at NBC - but that doesn't explain why he's taken a sudden interest in the assets of Paxson Communications. Could Rogers be assembling an investment team to buy out Pax TV and its station group as the basis for a seventh TV network? Yes, we know that Paxson already claims to be the seventh TV network, but we're talking about a legitimate network - one with programming that people might actually want to watch. The big stumbling block, of course, is NBC's equity stake in Paxson and its options to take control of the station group. Then again, given Rogers strong ties with General Electric's management, he might be just the man to form an alliance that would finally leverage the distribution of the Pax station group.

The Riff is feeling a bit lonelier today. Gordon Jump, who portrayed the Maytag repairman - you know, the loneliest guy in town - for the past 13 years, has died. He was 71.